


Claymore

by Mangacat



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Barebacking, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-03
Updated: 2011-02-03
Packaged: 2017-11-05 10:40:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mangacat/pseuds/Mangacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sergeant Jensen Ackles – better known for his nickname ‘Claymore’ – is rather comfortable with his life. Well, as comfortable as you can be leading an EOD unit tasked with the disposal of land mines in an outback stretch of the Afghan desert. The arrival of rookie Jared Padalecki might just blow that one to kingdom come…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Claymore

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: There fellas, another one for the prompt Other: Military. Please keep in mind that except for some cursory research into the Explosive Ordinance Disposal, I know next to nothing about military protocol. This was just an excuse to get them hot for each other and blowing shit up for ‘s birthday (which was in October. I know.). Have fun!

[](http://pics.livejournal.com/mangacat201/pic/000142zt/)  
Art of course by the amazing 

[ ](http://insane-songbird.livejournal.com/profile)

[ **insane_songbird** ](http://insane-songbird.livejournal.com/)

 

 

  
  
The jeep rumbled along the desert road that was barely more than dust imprinted with tire tracks. The sun beat down on the vehicle with scorching heat, and the draft that moved the air through the open windows did nothing to relieve the occupants. The smouldering temperature made the air shimmer over the dunes and gave the whole country a resemblance to hell. When the car rounded another bend and followed a slope downwards, a small camp of about a dozen tents came into view, nestled against the hill that would protect it from the freezing winds that, paradoxically, roamed the desert at night. The countryside around was mainly monochrome… countless shades of brown. The men scattered around the tents perked up at the rumble of a vehicle on the road as if entertainment was kind of hard to come by in this godforsaken spot of the Afghan desert. The jeep stopped near the biggest tent, and a burly man with a ponytail stepped out to welcome the new arrival. He shielded his eyes from the glaring light and watched as the door opened, and a man got out, well, unfolded for the lack of a better description. 

“Hey there, mate, how was the trip?”

“Dusty and unbelievably hot. Seriously, I know Texan heat, man, but this? Fricking overkill.”

The shorter man laughed and held out his hand for the other one to take. 

“So they say. Chris Kane.”

“Jared Padalecki. I’m here to report to Sgt. Jensen Ackles.”

Chris nodded:  “Right, there was some news, but we weren’t sure when you were coming. Follow me then.”

Chris showed Jared a spot where he could drop off his gear and got him a bottle of water before leading him out into the desert along the hillside. They walked about half a mile to a spot where the hill sloped down naturally and was maybe two dozen feet high altogether. They stopped, and Chris shouted up the hill:

“Hey, Claymore, come on down; we got a newbie here.”

“Claymore?” Jared asked with a raised eyebrow.

Chris chuckled: “Don’t ask; he won’t tell you.”

Before Jared could needle the other man any more, a silhouette appeared on top the slope, haloed from the back by the glaring desert sun. When the man trudged down, his steps loosened gravel along the way, and the stones rolled and jumped down the hill. Jared couldn’t make out his features due to the sun’s position, but something about the man's strong, graceful movements ignited a spark in his gut. Before Jared could tell himself to stand down, however, the man was halfway down the slope, and a gravelly voice shouted the familiar warning ‘fire in the hole’. Only a heartbeat later an explosion rocked the ground, the shock running all the way through Jared’s body as the a column of sand and dust rose up on the other side of the hill. His ears rang for a moment from the sound even though he had covered them automatically. The man walking down the hill hadn’t even missed a beat and reached them now, taking off his helmet to wipe the sweat from his brow with one arm. 

“Impressive, Claymore. Your timing is unbelievable, one of these days I’m going to find out how you do it.”

When he lowered his arm, Jensen nodded at Chris before training his eyes on the new addition to their team, and then he looked up. The new kid was built like a fricking tree and met his probing stare with an unwavering gaze and a salute. 

“Sgt. Ackles, name’s Jared Padalecki.”

Jensen nodded; he’d gotten the message, but the grainy picture on the note hadn’t prepared him for the sight in front of him. It was going to be really hard to control himself around this one. 

“Call me Claymore, everyone does, and it’s much more likely to get you a response. We’re not too big on formality out here in bumfuck, nowhere.”

Jared grinned and nodded. He was pleasantly surprised with what he had seen of his new team so far. All the people working in EOD did have a special code of behaviour even in the military. Handling explosives everyday that could lose you a limb, or turn you into pink dust at random, would do that. Everyone dealt with the stress differently, but this squad looked like he might fit right in, plus his superior was definitely something to look at. 

“Alright, Sir.”

“So, Padalecki, you got any experience with demining?”

“I worked in humanitarian in  Chile for a while, but I’ve never done any demining in a war zone.”

“Well, alright, that sounds not too bad. It’s rather quiet around here, nobody in their right mind crosses that stretch of desert in front of us, and the back territory is tightly patrolled to protect our work. We have more camps along the line of the field to the west, but can you see that mountain range over there?”

Jared shielded his eyes with his hand and looked up north where Jensen pointed out a ridge that was distorted by the dust and the shimmers of heat pulsing in the air. 

“Those couple of square miles are all ours.”

The kid couldn’t help but gape disbelievingly. Chris chortled at the look on his face and clapped him on the shoulder. 

“Yeah man, exactly what we did when we first came here. There’s going to be a lot of shit still lying around here once our tour is over, trust me. Mostly Russian, which is straightforward enough, but there are some nasty improvised little buggers of the home-cooked variety in among those, so you really have to keep your guard up.”

Jared blew up his cheeks, and the other men grinned. 

“Oh, this is going to be fun.”

Jared settled his bag onto his appointed cot. They didn’t exactly have the privacy of single rooms here, with the exception of the commanding officer, but at least the tents were partitioned, with linen walls that gave them just enough space to fit their cot and their luggage. Jared knew that his feet would hang out over the edge and into the corridor, but he had long since learned not be bothered by the hassle his non-standard height caused, and he wagered that if anyone had to go out for a late-night bathroom break, they could very well learn to avoid his feet on the way. 

The heat weighed on him, and even though he had grown up in a state where high temperatures weren’t all that uncommon, this desert heat had a different quality to it. Besides, the drive had exhausted him, and since Ackles had told him to settle in while he did the follow up on the load of mines he had just safely detonated, there was no reason to rush. While he unpacked and stowed away his stuff as well as he possibly could, other members of the team started to trickle in to have a look at him. There was Hodge, for example, a tech who specialized in retrieving and detonating the bigger, anti-tank mines, and Carlson, who was in charge of the bigger equipment, like the armoured bulldozers. Demining had become a high-tech job, and nowadays they had a lot of help from heavy machinery, which made it faster and very much safer, but there was still a lot of terrain that posed a challenge to the technical help, and where they had to resort to demining by hand. 

It was a tedious job that was more exhausting than terribly dangerous, but doing it the hard way provided a way for Jared to gain experience with all kinds of equipment and techniques, so he wasn’t going to complain. Besides, this stretch of the desert was not exactly in the crossfire of strategic advancement largely due to the unpredictable minefields that were dangerous to friend and foe alike, so it was unlikely that they would be involved in bigger skirmishes. It calmed Jared as well as his mother considerably, not that he wasn’t aware that letting your concentration waver in the quiet around here could prove to be just as lethal. Still, he wanted to get some professional experience out of this tour, which would have been a lot more difficult in the crossfire. Night fell fast out in the desert, and by the time he was done unpacking his stuff the light had waned, and everything around him took on a grey tinge, except for the area around the bonfire that had been started inside a stone crate. 

Jared sat down among the men gathered around the fire and drew some more curious glances. He prepared himself for the inevitable evening of anecdotes and stories that were very much part of the system of weighing and measuring the new guys. It was the Sergeant who addressed him first though. 

“So, Padalecki, I hear you know something about  Texas heat?”

Jared grinned and let the South lilt into his speech for a moment. 

“Sure I do. San Antone, man, born and bred.”

Ackles grinned back as he answered in style.

“ Richardson , man, just the same.”

Hodge threw in: “Dear heavens, they have got to quit sending us Texans. You guys are seriously overbalanced here.”

“Maybe that’s because  Texas is a BIG state with lots of virile young men to join the forces.”

“Oh, shut your big trap, Kane, before you start waxing poetic again. We’ve all heard it often enough already.”

Chris pulled a face and a round of snickers could be heard over the flames, but then he grinned and winked at Jared good-naturedly. 

The evening went on with more friendly banter and exchange and Jared was grateful that he felt instantly comfortable with his new team mates. It was imperative that they were able to rely on each other, especially in their line of work, and he’d much rather trust someone he actually liked. Although the like could actually turn out to be a problem, since Claymore’s piercing eyes, and his raucous laugh had drawn his attention away from the conversation more than once over the course of the evening.

The land might look derelict and hostile at first glance, but the sky at dawn, turning from that soft mauve colour to the brilliant, endless blue surely was beautiful. Jared stood outside the tent stretching the sleep out of his muscles and gazed up at the sky.

“So, first day, where do you want to go?”

The voice startled him, and he turned around sharply to catch the Sergeant’s eye.

“You’re letting me choose?”

“Well, first day, you get to play however you want, but that means for all the others you do as I say, when I say it and refrain from whining about it.”

Jared grinned and shook his head slightly.

“Should have known that there was a catch.”

“No catch, just me keeping things in order and making sure that everybody gets the same deal. You’re going to go through all the different technical fields, of course, but I want to gauge your capability at my own pace, and I don’t want any hassle to go with it.”

“Ah, well, I guess for today I’d like to go with the heavy machinery then. Big toys have always had a way of attracting my attention.”

Claymore blinked at him for a moment before his face straightened out again. Jared was sure he must have mistaken that sunburn for a blush, which in turn made him zero in on those freckles that stood out in stark relief. They were both silent, until the moment stretched into serious awkwardness, and Jared caught himself out and out staring. He coughed and berated himself for such a loss of control, while Claymore seemed to recover faster and confirmed his request:

“Uhm, alright, the trucks it is. You’re with Kane and Carlson for the day, and don’t let them needle you too much. But I suggest you gear up fast, they like to start before the big heat goes up.”

Jared nodded and threw in a salute for good measure, before he went off to find his comrades for the day. 

Jensen couldn’t help but spend the whole day pondering the rookie. From what he had caught in the breaks, Padalecki seemed to show confidence and eagerness, paired with a competent ability to pick up technical stuff fast. They all had gone through extensive training before being let anywhere near a war zone, but the reality was still a completely different thing from boot camp, however you looked at it. Everyone reacted differently to the stress that came with this job. Annoyingly, Jensen couldn’t seem to keep his main focus on the professional evaluation when it came to Padalecki though. 

_ It’s more that stretch of skin keeping you occupied, you moron. _

He made sure to avert his eyes from where they'd been glued to the rookie’s ripped stomach on display as he stretched languorously in the morning sun, hoping to distance himself before the newcomer could turn around to catch his commanding officer staring like he wanted to throw him to the ground and get it on right there.

Jensen was used to compartmentalizing his thoughts away for work, because if you didn’t stay focused on what you were doing right the fuck now you might - in his line of work - suddenly end up being Long John Silver. Still, keeping your thoughts and feelings locked in the back of your head doesn’t make them go away; it just puts them in a loop, until there’s a helpful operator on the line to work things out. Normally, Jensen liked to work shit out of his system, before it got piled into a stinking heap that would blow up right in his face, but Padalecki was posing an entirely new challenge. Sure, being who he was in the military had always meant that he was aware of certain boundaries, and it hadn’t ever stopped him from casting appreciative glances if they were unobtrusive and discreet, but up to now he’d always managed to stay in control and - most of all - detached. Then rookie Sunshine I-smile-for-dimples had shown up and crashed through all his professional defences with a snap of his fingers, and it riled Jensen up like nothing else. And considering their interactions, he couldn’t even be sure that he was the only one feeling it, which was so not helping. Still, Jensen was resolved to keep his wits about himself at all times; he wasn’t going to allow this to go any further. 

“Padalecki, you’re on ground duty from now on.”

“Seriously? Why would I…”

Jensen’s sharp look made the kid snap his jaw closed immediately, remembering their deal.

“You’ll be assigned to a certain patch of the grid we’ve laid out in the strategy centre; I’m going to show you in a moment. You told me that you did humanitarian already, and I guess they started out with demining by hand too, so I’m going to have a look at you and see what you can do.”

“Alright, Sarge.”

Jensen watched Padalecki leave to get ready for their day in the glaring sun. He was glad that the rookie had accepted his judgement without much fuss, but part of him had been gearing up for a challenge of his authority. Just looking at Jared, he knew the guy had it in him to up and go lone wolf; all the people in this business had that kind of place somewhere inside. There might be cheerful exterior and good-natured banter going around in his team, but underneath they all needed nerves of steel, and a very particular brand of recklessness. Jensen knew that if he drove Padalecki to the brink, like he was planning to, he might be in for a lot of trouble. Still, his own lone wolf  was waiting for it, craving the stand-off, pushing boundaries and issuing the challenge to the younger, the less experienced, the stronger by nature, but not in mind. He rubbed his hand over his face in exasperation. To hell with the metaphors, he was just too goddamned horny for this place.

Suiting up in full-body protection that felt like it weighed a ton – which it didn’t, but it was still a good deal more than normal people lugged around on their bodies as clothing – was uncomfortable under chilled training conditions. In the middle of the Afghan desert, with a long day ahead of them, and an endless number of explosive devices to dispose of in the smouldering heat, it was pure torture. Jared was sure that he must have lost his body weight in sweat by now. He had always been prone to sweating, but this was just ridiculous. Either way, if you valued your limbs, you didn’t go and demine a rocky mountain ridge without the right gear. He had spent the past two weeks doing just that, every day, digging out mines, levering them open and disarming them, then putting them together into a stack to be safely detonated, just like Claymore had the day he’d arrived. Jared was grateful for the experience he could get, but he felt like he was in the playpen, kept away from all the more dangerous sections that the Sergeant was handling himself. Sarge was also operating with the robots if anything self-improvised came up, and Jared craved to show his skills in the high risk areas as well, and he had been pondering how to go about dropping his thoughts. Claymore was famed for his strict discipline, and so far he hadn’t shown any sign of wanting to assign Jared to a different task. Jared knew that it was his CO’s way of testing his limits out one way or another, but he couldn’t help feeling like he was falling short of expectations every day he got up, only to be assigned a new, crappy piece of desert. Claymore was a consummate professional towards him in every way, but Jared still couldn’t shake the impression that he viewed him as nothing more than a rookie that needed to be coddled and protected while he made his first baby steps. He knew that he was way past that stage in his training already and longed to prove it. When he got back got back to digging and poking after his break, Jared opted to try to approach his superior about a little promotion soon- that is if he was going to get through the day that is. The gruelling work made him seriously crave the cold of the night.

The evenings at the campfire had become a custom that Jared had gotten used to pretty fast. The morale of the squad very much depended upon the fact that they could unwind after their exhausting days. Telling each other stories over the flickering flames, and exchanging friendly banter, served to get them to know each other better, and Jared was glad that he seemed to fit in well. But – despite the mounting tension on Jared’s side in their work relationship – he'd actually struck a real connection with Claymore of all people. That is, if he could put his upstairs brain into gear long enough to disregard how gorgeous the man was. But no matter how much Jared tried to keep his professional distance, because firstly that was his commanding officer, and second, having the hots for the man wouldn’t get any easier if they spent all their downtime together too, they still were well on their way to becoming friends. It was just easy to talk when they were not under the strain of field work where Claymore was absolutely relentless about concentration and keeping yourself in line. Over the three weeks he'd been working with him, as Jared looked at Claymore’s sparkling eyes and the endearing smile lines around his face, the man was beginning to turn into Jensen in his mind, and he realized that one way or the other, he was seriously screwed.  
  
  
Jensen undressed slowly, relishing in being able to peel away the sweaty clothing from his body after a day of hard work. The shower they had out here was barely more than a bucket that had to be tipped with a string, and the water pressure was abysmal, but after a day in the heat, the sand and being on his knees or hunched over some sort of equipment all the time, it still felt like heaven. While the lukewarm water ran in lazy rivulets over his body, he thought about what he’d seen from Padalecki in the last week. Rookie he might be, but he had shown some solid skills in ground work on his probation time, and Jensen was beginning to think that it was time to put him in front of a few more challenging patches. The only thing that had kept him from it so far was the fact that the kid was clearly gunning for some action, and while zeal was important for any job, it was downright dangerous to be too enthusiastic about something in their line of work. It made you fast, reckless, and, worst of all, sloppy. Jensen rubbed the grit from his arms while his thoughts veered in a completely different direction. He had thought that it would be difficult to deal with Padalecki from the moment he’d first laid eyes on him; what he hadn’t counted on was how easy it actually was. In their downtimes, they’d hit it off like a house on fire, and even their differences and ranks set aside, he felt that he was in genuinely good company. Jensen had a few really close friends in his life, two of whom had followed his crazy idea of enlisting and coming out here with him, but still, he had known Chris and Steve for half their lives. This budding thing with Jared was this… instant connection that went beyond mere lust at first sight and became the kind of understanding you’d be lucky to find in most lasting friendships. Things were hot and cold between them at a pace that made his head spin, and Jensen had no idea how to deal with _that._

“Hey, Claymore, are you… oh shit, sorry, when the guys said you were back here, I thought…. I… I’ll go.”

Jared stood there with what felt like a foot in the air, frozen in the motion to turn around, but unable to move. The words deserted him when he found himself taking in the breathtaking display. The shower partition was only chest-high, so he had an unobstructed view onto a magnificent back where Jensen stood with his head bent under the spray. The water droplets on his muscular arms glistened in the sinking sun like diamonds, highlighting the freckles that were scattered all over the slightly tanned skin. Before Jared could recover all his blood that had been rushing south just a moment ago, he became aware of the piercing eyes that were narrowed at him from a half-turned face, eyes that had caught him out and out staring. Jared thought for a moment that the corner of Jensen’s mouth twitched at the notion, but he was startled out of his reverie by a barked reply.

“What, Padalecki? Out with it, or go, but there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before, no reason to stand there like a star-struck teenage girl.”

Only when Jared’s jaw snapped closed with a painful click did he notice that he’d been standing there catching flies for at least ten seconds. To spare himself further embarrassment, he fumbled for words. 

“Uhm… I… sir, I just wanted to… I mean… no, nevermind, I’ll just…”

“You’re going to run with me all day tomorrow, and we’ll do one of the hard patches. If you pull through, I’m putting you on your next assignment day after tomorrow. That what you were about to ask?”

“I… uhm… what? How did you know, I mean… hell, forget it, done,… Sir.”

Now a vicious smirk played around Claymore’s lips for real.

“Right, relax, kiddo. Go on, lemme finish up here, will you? Water’s not going to run forever.”

Jared nodded awkwardly and finally found himself able to move. He turned around and got some distance between himself and his commanding officer, before he got them both into some deep shit and jumped him. All the while his mind couldn’t help but play the moment over and over again. He was so _fucked._

Jensen checked his tools separately before he put them all together in his kit in a meticulous fashion. He never went out for the day without rechecking everything at least twice. Some might call it OCD, he called it survival instinct. Looking out over the rocky terrain in front of him, he mentally mapped out the stretch he wanted to work on now. Most of the stuff around here was predictable enough, once you’d dug it up, but there were still some very dangerous IED’s out there, and once it was cooked off the books, even a very experienced tech could be out of his depth. It was the one thing that made his gut twist in an uncomfortable way. However, he couldn’t think about that too often, so he made today all about getting to know what the rookie had learned in the last month. Jensen looked up and spotted Padalecki gearing up just a few feet across.

“Ready to go?”

The kid nodded with a solemn face and fixed the straps of his pack. 

“Alright guys, let’s roll then.”

~*~

The day was winding down at last, and Jared was grateful for the dusky light that meant they wouldn’t be out working for much more than an hour tops. Temperature was still from hell, and the sun glared down from the western sky like a fiery red ball, but night fell fast here in the desert, and they couldn’t risk working in less than perfect conditions. The sluggish, brown of the rocks had been tinged with an orange hue, which made the sight around him almost beautiful, but he was too aware of what he had been doing the whole day - and with whom - to appreciate it properly. Claymore had been supervising him the whole day, with a stony face that gave absolutely nothing away about how Jared had been doing, and frankly it set his teeth on edge. He’d held his tongue though, because he figured that mouthing off or fishing for compliments wouldn’t do him any good anyway. Morosely, he poked the next patch of the grid in front of him, and still felt a small thrill when he met resistance about an inch down in the loose sand. He dug cautiously and freed a cylinder about five inches in diameter. Jared instantly recognized the type, it was an anti-personnel mine that was relatively simple to disarm – once you’d dug it out of the sand completely without triggering the pressure switch and popped the cap on the bottom. Carefully, he deepened the hole and shoved more sand up into a little heap on the side. Once he was sure that he could lift it out of the ground without jostling it too much, he put his hand on opposite sides of the rim and twisted slowly upwards. Jared hadn’t lifted the mine even half an inch when something struck him as odd. He’d handled these things countless times, and this one felt a lot heavier than it was supposed to. Also, the bottom part, that was coming free slowly of the sand, had a slightly different shape than he’d been expecting. Jared stopped cold when he realized that he didn’t have one of the factory models on his hands here. This was the tuned version, and thus completely unpredictable. 

Jensen had been picking his way through his grid diligently, when a bout of dread suddenly made his stomach sink. It happened a split second before he could process that Padalecki, whom he’d been watching out of the corner of his eye, suddenly froze mid-motion for no apparent reason. 

“Hey, Claymore, come over here for a sec, I think I got some improvised shit on my hands. Literally.”

The dread turned into a cold clump of fear. The improvised explosive devices were the most dangerous ones, because it was impossible to gauge how much damage they could do. Often, they were outfitted with trick mechanisms and extra circuits that made them react badly to disarming measures. They were designed to kill the people responsible for disabling them. Jensen took a deep breath, buried his anguish and slowly made his way over to Jared’s position. The young man was hunched over the device in his hands, so Jensen had to kneel in front of him to be able to look at it. The exterior looked harmless enough at first glance, but since he knew what he was looking for, Jensen instantly spotted the scratches and tool traces on the shell, that indicated that it had been tampered with. He exhaled sharply and straightened to put a radio call through back to the camp. 

“Alpha here, guys we have a serious problem. Possible Code Black, I repeat, Code Black. Send the available units up here asap. Our exact position is Cell E, Grid 348 dash B. Make this quick, boys.”

A faint ‘Copy that, Sarge’ crackled over the radio static, and only then could Jensen bring himself to concentrate again on the situation at hand. 

“Claymore, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think we have time to wait for backup. I have no idea how stable this shit is, but if it’s really home-cooked I’m not sitting here until they get their fat asses up the hill.”

“Padalecki, you know that there may be a balance switch inside. You’re not going anywhere, until we know that you won’t burn your fingers on the stove once you move the pot.”

Jensen could hear the smile in Jared’s voice when he answered without looking up.

“Awww, there I thought you didn’t care about my ‘candy-nipping paws’, was it?”

“I care more for your running mouth, bitch, but I’d rather you stay in touch with _all_ of your vital parts until further notice.”

Jared knew that Jensen was just mouthing off, because they were in a serious tight spot here, but the banter helped considerably to calm his frazzled nerves and focus his mind again on the task at hand. He hadn’t really encountered IED’s outside of training conditions yet, but there were a few things to be learned about them nonetheless, and one of them was that the bad guys who made them often put markers on them, to to be able to identify them and avoid being blown up by their own shit. If he was able to find those, and figure out what they meant, he’d have a way to circumvent the tricks and disarm this little bugger, before it blew up in his face. Jared studied the outer shell for any distinct signs and suddenly narrowed his eyes at a small spot on the side that glinted in the rays of the sinking sun. It was a little, reflective sticker that would normally only excite kids up to the age of five, and it was totally out of place here. Jared’s thoughts were running at 80 mph to figure out what it could mean, when a light suddenly went off inside his head, and he was sure he had the answer. 

“I got it. It’s a photosensitive trigger.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“There’s a marker on the outside, I’m sure that’s what it means.”

“You can’t know for sure; we can’t take the risk. Let me take over.”

Jared bristled at the thought, but he reigned himself in, aware that Jensen had a lot more experience, and that, technically, this kind of defiance could get him into some deep crap if he got out of this in one piece, but he was sure, and he wasn’t going to sit here waiting for another agonizing ten minutes, when he could disarm this thing and be done with it in three. 

“No, I can do it. I know that I can reach the photocell and disconnect it; I’ve seen it done before. I just have to find a way…”

“You’re going to do no such thing. How do you think you’d be able to shield the cell while you’re working? One glint of light inside the box, and you’re done – if you’re even right about the photosensitivity.”

“Just, step out of the perimeter, and I’ll figure something out.”

“I’m not going to… Padalecki, if you do something reckless, I will have your hide, and I’m sure as hell not going anywhere right now.”

An idea shot through Jared’s head all of a sudden.

“Well, then at least take a step to the left, so you got your back to the sun, man.”

When Jensen’s shadow fell over him in a long stretch, Jared was reasonably sure that combined with the shade his own body provided, it would be dark enough to at least take a look. He shivered at the thought of what could have happened if he’d lifted the mine and turned it around to disable it without noticing… he pushed the feeling down and concentrated on the task at hand. 

Jensen couldn’t believe that this moron was going bump his way through this situation like that, but their backup would arrive soon, and there was no chance doing anything until then, because any jostling might blow it up, regardless of the triggers. 

“I can see the opening, and there's a glint in there that could be the photo cell. If I can cut that from the circuit, I’m sure I can open it up to cut the main core.”

“You can’t…”

“I have to; this is unstable. I can feel it in my bones.”

Before Jensen could move or say something, Padalecki had moved one hand to his belt, supporting the mine in the same position with his other. He reached for a tool and poked something through a small opening on the underside of the plastic casing. His heart thundered in his ears, but he didn’t dare make a move, since any movement could be wrong right now. Padalecki let out a small cry of triumph when nothing happened for a few seconds. A latch clicked, and the bottom slid harmlessly down onto the ground. Jensen could see that the mechanism inside was fairly straightforward and could be disarmed with little trouble,, but once Padalecki had carefully tied up that loose end and let go of the device, the adrenaline washed back through his system with a vengeance, and he grabbed the younger man by the scruff of his neck to drag him up and away from the site. 

Jared knew he was grinning like a loon, despite the vice-like grip on his neck, and the fact that his superior was probably going to rip him a new one for that, but he had made the right call, he’d done it and he was still here, stumbling away from his greatest feat of the day, still in one piece. 

“What the _fuck_ did you think you were doing there?”

Claymore had ripped off his helmet and part of his protective shield in front of his face to be able to level Jared with a glare that would have burnt lesser men to ash. 

“Defying me like that and taking a RISK like that! This can’t happen in our line of work, do you hear me?”

Jared couldn’t help but talk back.

“But you gotta admit, that was pretty cool there, eh?”

Jensen looked murderous for a moment, as if he was about to take a swing at Jared, but he didn’t get to finish his thought. 

All of a sudden, an explosion rocked the ground, and the blast threw them off their feet and sent them rolling down the hillside in a tangled mess, until they were stopped by a couple of bushes, ten or fifteen feet down. 

_ Later… _

Jared woke up with a terrible headache, and what felt like a full body bruise. Their field medic had told him that he’d been incredibly lucky not to have broken anything besides his rather gigantic ego, and that he was to report to Sgt. Ackles’ quarters as soon as soon as he could stand, which should be any minute now. Jared groaned but got to his feet a few moments later. Apart from a few scratches, a lot of colourful bruises, and a deeper laceration on his ribs that had required a couple of stitches, he was indeed fine. 

When he entered Jensen’s tent, he found the other man only dressed in his fatigue pants and open boots, leaning against the tent pole with his arms crossed. His eyes were stone cold though and clouded with the impending storm. Jared opted not to say anything and instead stayed loose and relaxed, waiting for that swing he’d had coming. 

“You know what you did out there was foolish, reckless, let’s not forget completely insubordinate.”

“I know, but….”

“I’m not _finished_ yet. You could have just as easily gotten yourself killed, you just. got. LUCKY, do you _understand?_ ”

Jared’s first instinct was to bow his head and grovel before Jensen, but the impulse was overcome a second later by a much stronger emotion – rebellion. 

“But you don’t understand. I knew I could do it!”

“That’s not the point, damn it! the point is that I’m responsible for keeping your damn ass out of trouble out there, but that only works if you trust me, and listen to my fucking _orders.”_

Jensen narrowed his eyes dangerously and advanced on Jared in a way that made him forget all about the fact that he had several inches on the Sergeant. Still, he wasn’t prepared to back down. 

“I know it was fricking dangerous, but guess what, our job always is. But this was my opportunity to show you that I can pull my weight around here just like everybody else. God dammit, I was just trying to prove that I’m worthy.”

Jensen’s eyes flashed at his words, and Jared braced himself for the verbal assault – or the punch – that was sure to follow, but what actually happened caught him completely off guard. Jensen surged up, grabbed the hair at the nape of his neck in a vicious grip and dragged him down to crush their lips together in a way that made Jared’s head spin. He had no chance to get his footing back, before Jensen’s tongue invaded his mouth, and his hands roamed all over his body, tugging his sweat soaked shirt out of his pants savagely, almost ripping off the bandage that was covering Jared’s stitches. Jensen barely took his mouth off long enough to drag the t-shirt over Jared’s head and bury his fingers possessively against his chest. Jared hissed at the rough treatment, but was distracted a moment later, when Jensen leaned down to attend to one of his nipples, tugging with his teeth and sucking around it at the same time. Jared finally came halfway to his senses, when he felt that same hand on the waistband of his pants. 

“No… wait, wha… we should… n’t…”

“Shut. _Up.”_

The tone lashed right through Jared’s system, his jaw clacked with an audible snap, and his knees buckled obediently when Jensen pushed against his shoulders to make him sit down sideways on the sleeping cot, with his chest bare, and his pants hanging open. 

“Don’t you. _Dare_. Move.”

Jared stayed completely still, save for his heavy breathing, as he watched Jensen toe off his boots and slide down his pants with frantic movements, until he stood there flushed, gloriously naked and very hard. 

Jared just stared unabashedly for a minute and Jensen let him, knowing _exactly_ what kind of sight he made. Then he stepped forward, parting his legs slightly to accommodate Jared’s knees between his, which put a very important part of his anatomy right into Jared’s face. Jensen looked down at him through his lashes and smirked, followed by a sharp jerk of his head. The order was unmistakable, but this time, Jared was only too happy to oblige, even though there was a tiny voice in the back of his head chanting about how very much this SHOULD NOT be happening. But the heavy weight on his tongue said otherwise, and Jared silenced the distracting noise in his mind to enjoy whatever he could get from Jensen right then. And he sure enjoyed making the other man hiss and tremble, but he was also so engrossed in his endeavour that he missed the snick of a tube and the fact that Jensen put one hand on his shoulder for support, but the other behind his back. He did however notice when Jensen shoved him back suddenly, kneeling down with his legs on either side of Jared’s thighs; sinking down onto his lap and taking him inside with one smooth relentless stroke. 

The move caught him unawares, made his eyes roll up into his head and it was all he could do to grit his teeth to prevent the scream that would have made the whole camp come running from leaving his mouth. When he opened his eyes again, Jensen was right in front of him in a quite similar state, jaw locked, eyes screwed shut and breathing heavily. Jared could barely get it together enough to open his mouth, but he had to ask.

“You… you… alright?”

Jensen’s nostrils flared, and he opened his eyes to glare at Jared. 

“Just… gimme a minute,… been some…time.”

Jared nodded wordlessly and put one of his hands onto Jensen’s shoulder for support while the other fell down to get a good grip on his ass, which in turn made Jensen groan deeply. He started moving his hips in sensuous circles, never moving off Jared’s lap more than half an inch, but the feeling of tight heat around him, and sweat slicked skin sliding against him was a kind of sweet torture that Jared hadn’t felt in too long. His hand on Jensen’s ass tightened, the other falling down to Jensen’s hips with a strong grip, and he lifted him off, only to bring him back down in a deep thrust, making Jensen hiss and pant as he did it again and again. They had to keep the pace agonizingly slow, because the cot was barely sturdy enough to take their combined weight, let alone the frantic pounding that both of them were longing for. Nevertheless, Jared managed to shift the angle, until he was sure that he was hitting Jensen’s prostate more often than not, and promptly got his reward as Jensen fisted the chain that held his dog-tags and dragged him close to attack his lips with a biting kiss that drowned their groans in their mouths. 

Their frantic kissing trapped Jensen’s cock between their stomachs, giving it just the amount of friction that was needed to unravel the lust that had been coiling inside him for a long time now. The shock of his climax rushed through him without further warning, taut tension snapping through his muscles, and he barely had time to sink his teeth into Jared’s shoulder to keep from screaming himself hoarse. Jared jerked under him from the pain of the bite, and there sure were going to be finger-shaped bruises on his hips after this, but it was well worth it to feel Jared come undone inside him after a few more stuttering thrusts. When they came down slowly, still locked in an embrace that made their heaving breaths mingle, Jensen found his voice again. 

“If you ever do something _stupid_ like that again, I’m going to kill you myself.”

Jared took a couple of deep breaths before answering with a smirk.

“Well, I’m going to do plenty of stupid things if you promise to do _this_ instead.”

Jensen glared at him with a hard glint in his eyes.

“I’m serious, Padalecki, one more stunt like this, and you’re done. Now, get up and presentable, we got work to do.”

Jared smiled, because, while the look in Jensen’s eyes was dead serious, he could see the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. They were alive, well as can be, satisfied and he thought that they might even have a future ahead of them if he had any say in it. It couldn’t get much better than that.  
  
  
  
End  


 

 


End file.
